Elizabeth Holmes, depicted through a mosaic of historical and current-day female scientists, all from the Association for Women in Science.

Silicon Valley is often described as a “boy’s club” or a “brotopia” (Grybos 2023) where success stories such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos who started coding in humble garages are broadcast worldwide as household names. These examples influence the presumed definition of a tech entrepreneur to be a college dropout sporting geeky t-shirts and jeans. These stereotypes discourage young girls from imagining their futures as part of that seemingly exclusive environment (Hui 2014). 

Women have been underrepresented in tech for years. Recent research suggests that women continue to be excluded due to the pervasiveness of the “brotopia” (Grybos 2023). This exclusion makes startups more challenging for women to access and to raise funding for (White 2024). 

Given the male domination in tech, when a female CEO makes headlines, her gender becomes a significant part of the story (Burleigh 2015). Elizabeth Holmes followed the pattern of her idols by dropping out of college, dressing humbly, and even lowering her voice.

She was named the world’s first female self-made billionaire in 2014, cementing her status as the female icon of the Silicon Valley tech scene (Midwestern Citizen). While both her successes and failures have been heavily reported on, she was not able to escape gendered coverage in the media (Grybos 2023).

The Pervasive Sexism in Silicon Valley

The misogyny in Silicon Valley grew simultaneously with the rise of the tech industry. During the 1960s—Silicon Valley’s early years—women served in political roles, but were consistently left out of tech development (Hui 2014). While a male-dominated tech culture was emerging, women fell short of the stereotype (Hui 2014).

Female founders struggle to receive funding in tech: for example, in 2023, Morningstar reported that women get only 2% of venture capital funding in the United States. Women working in tandem with men, however, are more likely to gain financial support (Silano 2023).

Even after indisputable evidence of perpetrating domestic violence or sexual harassment, men have avoided negative consequences. At the same time, women face severe repercussions for reporting sexist remarks encountered in the workplace. Numerous examples of casual jokes imbued with sexism, threatening tweets, and statistics on biased gender-based firings have been documented (Burleigh 2015).

Not surprisingly, in Silicon Valley, the turnover rate for women doubles that of men; this significantly decreases their likelihood of advancement. Additionally, women often have difficulty meeting cultural norms of their workplaces, such as traditionally masculine behaviors like self-promotion and networking (Mickey 2019).

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/the-tech-industrys-gender-discrimination-problem

Elizabeth Holmes’s Early Success

When Elizabeth Holmes’s company, Theranos, rapidly grew in the early 2010s, she became an emblem of female success (Grybos 2023). Theranos’s established mission was to detect and prevent disease to improve people’s health (Bulgarella 2019). She was quickly able to gain recognition both due to being a woman in a sea of men and the humanitarian cause of her company, which was unusual in Silicon Valley at the time (Grybos 2023). 

In order to gain respect and reputability, Holmes modeled herself after her role model, Steve Jobs: she wore his trademark black turtlenecks in magazine photoshoots. Her Board of Advisors consisted of high-ranking professionals with stellar reputations from the business world and the military. Theranos also partnered with national corporations such as Walgreens to implement their technology for public use and benefit (Williams 2022).  Investors flocked to her and financially and socially supported her without doing much background research (Landberg 2020).

The Downfall of Theranos

When reports revealed that Theranos was built on fraudulent technology that didn’t work, critics quickly pointed to Holmes’ gender as a possible explanation. It did not go unnoticed by many media outlets that multiple members of her team were all older men, which swayed them to report that they were coerced into believing her. Journalists cited her “feminine charm” as a manipulation tactic she used to entice male businessmen to invest in Theranos (Williams 2022). Others suggested that employees and investors were “intoxicated” with the idea of a woman in power, especially as a role model for younger women aspiring to become tech leaders (Landberg 2020). As her legal processes began, journalists worried that she would cite feminism to avoid taking accountability or accepting criticism for her actions (Williams 2022).

As Elizabeth Holmes’s court dates were continuously delayed, she became pregnant with her second child. She was immediately accused of having a baby simply in order to reduce her prison time or just to further push back her sentencing (Orecchio-Egresitz 2023).

Lasting Consequences

Elizabeth Holmes is worthy of analysis as an example of the sexist treatment and media coverage women in Silicon Valley face, whether or not they succeed. Hers is an unfortunate story, particularly for prospective female entrepreneurs who dream of flourishing in the tech industry. The media’s focus on Elizabeth Holmes’s gender has had lasting consequences. Her notoriety allowed continued skepticism and uncertainty about the prowess of female leaders to flourish (Williams 2022).

There are few well-known female tech CEOs on the same level as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos because instead of focusing on women’s breakthroughs and successes, the media attention fixates on their failures, even when they are purposely set up for it.

When female CEOs are hired (an already rare event) they are more likely to be given positions on the “glass cliff” — a term describing companies that are on the verge of collapse or bankruptcy (Kang & Griffith, 2022). If the women decide to leave, they are often harassed on their way out. Others have sued for discrimination, like the former COO of Pinterest Françoise Brougher and the former CEO of Reddit Ellen Pao (Kang & Griffith, 2022). Thus, prominent women in tech today often choose to stay farther away from the public eye, or get public attention — and criticism — for the wrong reasons.

References

Anon. 2022. “Deep Is Dominant: A Sociological Explanation for Elizabeth Holmes’s Voice.” Midwestern Citizen. Retrieved April 2, 2024 (https://midwesterncitizen.substack.com/p/deep-is-dominant-a-sociological-explanation) 

Bulgarella, Caterina. 2019. “Mirage Or Vision? Four Blind Spots At The Core Of Theranos’ Failure.” Forbes. Retrieved February 28, 2024 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/caterinabulgarella/2019/04/22/mirage-or-vision-four-blind-spots-at-the-core-of-theranos-failure/?sh=14d1951070bc) 

Burleigh, Nina. 2015. “What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women.” Newsweek. Retrieved February 28, 2024 (http://iuf317.live.s3.amazonaws.com/What%20Silicon%20Valley%20Thinks%20of%20Women33a70b95-cb51-4043-8e9e-aa31fc7ca366.pdf) 

Grybos, Emilie. 2023. “Elizabeth Holmes: Silicon Valley, unicorns, and the limits of visibility.” Feminist Media Studies. Retrieved February 20, 2024 (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2023.2245979).

Kang, Cecilia and Erin Griffith. 2022. “What Sheryl Sandberg’s Exit Reveals about Women’s Progress in Tech.” The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2024 (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/technology/sheryl-sandberg-women-in-tech.html). 

Kolhatkar, Sheelah. 2017. “The Tech Industry’s Gender-Discrimination Problem.” The New Yorker. Retrieved April 2, 2024 (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/the-tech-industrys-gender-discrimination-problem). 

Hui, Kiana. 2014. “The Obstacles of Female Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.” Stanford Intersect. Retrieved March 5, 2024 (https://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/intersect/article/view/593/501) 

Landberg, S. T. 2020. “Loving The Lie: Elizabeth Holmes, Thomas Edison, and Alex Gibney.” Film Quarterly. Retrieved February 20, 2024 (https://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article/74/1/64/111828/Loving-the-Lie-Elizabeth-Holmes-Thomas-Edison-and).

Mickey, E. L. (2019). When Gendered Logics Collide: Going Public and Restructuring in a High-Tech Organization. Gender & Society, 33(4), 509-533. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243219830944 

Orecchio-Egresitz, Haven. 2023. “Elizabeth Holmes Had a 2nd Baby Right Before She Was Due in Prison. Former Federal Prosecutors Say That Might Not Be Enough to Delay the Sentence.” Business Insider. Retrieved April 2, 2024 (https://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-holmes-not-first-mom-to-delay-prison-sentence-baby-2023-3). 

Silano, Sara. 2023. “Women Founders Get 2% of Venture Capital Funding in U.S.” Morningstar. Retrieved April 2, 2024 (https://www.morningstar.com/alternative-investments/women-founders-get-2-venture-capital-funding-us) 

White, Sarah. 2024. “Women in tech statistics: The hard truths of an uphill battle.” CIO: Foundry. Retrieved March 5, 2024 (https://www.cio.com/article/201905/women-in-tech-statistics-the-hard-truths-of-an-uphill-battle.html#:~:text=Only%20one%20in%20four%20startups,gender%20diversity%2C%20the%20study%20found.) 

Williams, Medina. 2022. “Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos: A play on more than just ethical failures.” Business Information Review. Retrieved February 20, 2024 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02663821221088899).